Comments About The African Custom Of Giving Shout Outs (Dropping Names) In Contemporary African Recorded Music As Koffi Olomide Does In The 2020 Song "Waah!"

Diamond Platnumz, November 30, 2020

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series on the 2020 hit song "Waah!" by Tanzanian recording artist Diamond Platnumz featuring Democratic Republic of the Congo recording artist Koffi Olomide.

Part III of this pancocojams series showcases the offical video of "Waah!" by Diamond Platnumz featuring Koffi Olomide. This post also presents selected comments from the That Fire LA's reaction video's discussion thread for the song "Waah!". Those comments refer to the African custom that is found in that song and some other contemporary African songs of giving "shout outs"  ("dropping names" i.e. saying the names of some family members, some  celebrities, and/or others) in the song itself. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/01/diamond-platnumz-ft-koffi-olomide-waah.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That  post showcases the official YouTube video of the song "Waah!" as well as lyrics and two English translations of that song. WARNING - Some of the lyrics for this song are considered to be sexually explicit in the United States, if not elsewhere.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/01/comments-about-congolese-singer-koffi.html  for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases That Fire LA's reaction video for the song "Waah!" by Diamond Platnumz featuring Koffi Olomide. That post also includes selected comments from that video's discussion thread about Olomide and comments about Diamond Platnumz.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Koffi Olomide and Diamond Platnumz for their musical legacies. Thanks to all those who are associated with this video and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. 

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SELECTED COMMENTS
From discussion thread for The Fire LA's (TFLA) reaction video for Diamond Platnumz featuring Koffi Olomide's  song "Waah" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAS0SZD0l5U&ab_channel=ThatFireLA, Dec. 1, 2020

These comments are given in relative chronological order with the oldest comments given first, except for replies. Numbers were added for referencing purposes only.

December 2020

1. Oscar Oluoch
"Koffi Olomide is Congolese, musician also popularly known as Le Grand Mapao. Didistone is  the daughter to  Mopao  that he frequently mention her name when on stage, also frequently mentioned is Del Pirlo the son"

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2. Tony Mbodi
"0:48 they're saying "Didistone". It's the name of Koffi Olomide's daughter. She's a model of Fendi and an ambassador for l'oreal. "

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3. Alpha George
"At the end Diamond mentions "Didi Stone Naikie" the daughter of Koffi Olomide."

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4. Magdaline Etu
"Didi stone is koffi’s daughter who is a mode[l] in Paris . Her name is mention in most of his songs"

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5. axel mpoy
"By the way I see you pick a word by the end of the song saying " didiston" it a name of koffi daughter, she's now modeling in Europe, so u can find her online... By the way Congolese music promot business and ppls names, singer sing your name and you can become popular... And koffi always promot his kids nes specially when the child just born"

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6. Gioia Arismendi
"He’s saying didi stone, that’s koffi’s daughter. It’s a popular thing for Congolese musician to sing people names in songs. It’s actually a whole culture on it’s own"

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Reply
7. Caroline Mendy
"It's an African thing, names of famous people, ancestors are mentioned in songs."

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8. Kristine Odongo
"@Caroline Mendy exactly,it's African thing"

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9. BANGA2TIMEZ
"@Caroline Mendy bruh not rlly cuz ppl pay them to say their names 😂😂😂 ain’t no culture lmfaoooo are u Congolese ?"

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10. Caroline Mendy
"@BANGA2TIMEZ no I'm not Congolese. I'm not saying it's not a Congolese thing. In the West African region Griots and Jalis were very important to our society as they were our historians and custodians of our histories.  For instance, the Mende tribe, the Soso tribe, Bambara,  mandinkas, manjakos, wolof, jolas, manjagos will drop names in songs during naming ceremonies,  weddings and gatherings. For the manjago tribe, during the burial rites all the ancestors that have gone before will be mentioned,  what they did, their children etc.  My mistake was generalising the whole continet, but this is true for the majority of West African Countries.  Now of course, some people are paying for Griots and jalis to sing their praises.  There role was much bigger that that, it was to preserve the history of our tribes and lineages."

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11. Kristine Odongo
"@Caroline Mendy its African culture,even where I come frm in Kenya,we put people names in songs,there is nothing wrong with ,that's the beauty of our culture."

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12. NYANGE CLAN, January 2021
"@Caroline Mendy Congolese are men of prestige 🤣

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13. Yaya Ori, Janauary 2021
"Actualy this is an heritage from griot... At ancien time people paid the griot to go sing their song, glorious accoplishement ect... In congolese music this traditions is keept alive so anyone can pay Koffi or any Congolese singer to have their name in the song. At the time it was not that expensive, my aunt Chantal paid for a "big up" and it was like 500$ in the 1997. Now i dont know also the price depend on what you want him to say. Just your name or a tag like ' The lion of the savana the strong handsome Tyler the animal.. Yes sometime you can ear that kind of things you are like what?? In inoss B i love when in yo pe he say the smart achitecte Jonathan.. Actualy it also serve as promotion. I that song you can ears serveral shop name like the parfumerie, the moda fashion ect...

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14. Yaya Ori, January 2021
"@Caroline Mendy Actualy this is an heritage from griot... At ancien time people paid the griot to go sing their song, glorious accoplishement ect... In congolese music this traditions is keept alive so anyone can pay Koffi or any Congolese singer to have their name in the song. At the time it was not that expensive, my aunt Chantal paid for a "big up" and it was like 500$ in the 1997. Now i dont know also the price depend on what you want him to say. Just your name or a tag like ' The lion of the savana the strong handsome Tyler the animal.. Yes sometime you can ear that kind of things you are like what?? In inoss B i love when in yo pe he say the smart achitecte Jonathan.. Actualy it also serve as promotion. I that song you can ears serveral shop name like the parfumerie, the moda fashion ect...

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15. Hazel massa, January 2021
"Caroline Mendy actually in Congo you also have many griots but they're people who live in village and still sing/tell story, they sing in their mother's tongue. On the contrary, popular congolese singers sing in lingala ( one of the official lenguage), and say names they are payed for It's called " libanga" which means dedication.

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16. Seeking Knowledge101
"Lmaooo your reaction is fire , Koffi Olomide is legendary , he has been making music since my mother was young and he is still popping up to now . He is very talented ...idk if it's his big deep voice , the fact that he only does a little bit and has his band sing for him most of the time and all he needs is to pop up with that deep voice of his  . That is all part of what makes him Koffi Olamide or LA GRANDE MOPAO MOKONZI as people call him  !!! Loving that he is still collaborating with all types of new talents and I couldn't wait for Diamond and him to do so (especially after seeing him collaborate with Fally Ipupa )! I love seeing my African American brothers and sisters enjoying this , makes me so happy :) . Ps Didi Stone is his daughter (it's a Congolese musicians thing , they stay mentioning names in their music videos aha . ) TNZ/DRC represent :) !!!"

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17. vanessa MHZ
"Some of what they are saying are just names of celebrities"

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18. TheKingzRSA
"Koffi Is one of the best in DRC Congo... and he's just mentioning names more a less shootouts😂😂"
-snip-
In the next comment in that discussion thread, this commenter corrected the word "shootouts" to "shout outs". 

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19. Leonard Levi
"that fire LA if you don't know by now, Congolese artist send shout outs to anyone, if you behave well, the next song from Koffi will have your shout out. pin this prophecy"

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January 2021

20. Tipota Kala
"Koffi is an African legend in music especially the Rhumba where Ndombolo is a birth from the Mother Rhumba. Calling of names in a music in Africa is part of the music. These names might be names of famous people in the continent ( eg Dan Ngote or Mama Dan ngote as mentioned in the song here) This Dangote man is  said to be the richest man in Africa) some names might be personal friends, close relatives who might have contributed in lives positively or some world influencials like Ronaldo in football as sang in the Chorus. …"

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21. Pamela Anibri
"Mama dangote is diamond mother..

Didi stone is the daughter if koffi olomide she is a modell.."

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This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series.

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